HONG KONG (UCAN): In its Trafficking in Persons Report 2017 released on June 27, the United States of America (US) downgraded China’s ranking to Tier 3, rating it with the world’s worst human trafficking offenders alongside North Korea, Zimbabwe and Syria as.

The report is the first public rebuke of China’s human rights record by the US since Donald Trump assumed the presidency in January.

HONG KONG (UCAN): While China fell in ranking in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2017 (see page 3) issued by the State Department of the United States of America (US) on June 27, south Asian nations continue to fall short in their attempts to combat human trafficking and protect victims, but are making significant efforts.

JAKARTA (UCAN): Catholic, Muslim and Protestant groups in Indonesia have pledged unity in fighting against slavery and human trafficking in the nation’s maritime and fishing sector.
They signed a joint declaration to end slavery at the office of the vice president on April 6.

The joint commitment is described as being “our effort to show that we want to work together with the government to end the problem,” Father Paulus Christian Siswantoko, the secretary of the Indonesian Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant People, explained.

AGANA (CWN): Bishop Michael Byrnes, an auxiliary from Detroit, has been named as coadjutor of Agana in Guam; where Hong Kong-born Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-fai has been standing in for Archbishop Anthony Apuron, who has been charged with multiple sex-abuse complaints.

A few weeks ago, 69 Vietnamese victims of human trafficking were found in The Philippines. They had been brought from Vietnam two at a time on tourist visas by a syndicate and made to work for three years, on low wages or none at all, by human traffickers.

The whole group was then abandoned by the gang-masters, declared indigent and deported.